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Summary

Description

1913. 2-storey, 3-bay, L-plan villa in Arran estate-style. Prominent gabled stone porch at re-entrant angle. Overhanging eaves with barge boards to gables. Pink hammer dressed sandstone in irregular courses, with ashlar dressings, to principal elevation. Plain irregular coursing to other elevations. Set within garden plot, to N of paddock, with principal elevation and entrance to S.

S ELEVATION: projecting bay at ground floor left with canted three-light bay window; bipartite window to right. Single breaking-eaves dormer to upper right. Bipartite window to upper left. Double leaf, vertically boarded door, within four-centred arch aperture to stone porch. Inner door panelled and half-glazed, with coloured textured glass. N ELEVATION: asymmetrical fenestration. Vertically boarded timber kitchen door to left and large door to coal store on right.

Timber sash and case windows with multi-paned upper sashes. Grey slates to roof, projecting bay and pitched porch roof. Stone chimney stacks with corniced coping.

INTERIOR (Seen 2010): timber stairs with turned balustrade of dark pine. Timber panelled doors (original). Timber fire surround with iron inset in drawing room. Cast iron fire surrounds of various designs in upper rooms. Fireplace, or range, has been removed from kitchen. Original timber fittings, including cupboards and architraves. Original plain plaster cornices in all rooms.

Statement of Special Interest

Part of A Group at Brodick Castle Estate comprising: Brodick Castle; Bavarian Summerhouse; Cnocan Burn Road Bridge; Greenhyde and Castle Cottages; Ice House; Walled Garden; the Nursery; Main Gates, West Gates and Coastal Boundary Walls; South Gates; Sylvania and Brodick Kennels.

Stylistically archaic, for 1913, and unusual for an estate building, Sylvania, nevertheless, is remarkably similar, in materials, massing and configeration to the main house at Brodick Kennels (1858) see separate listing. Only minor alterations to the drawings for the Kennels would be necessary to arrive at the Sylvania design. Stylistically similar also to houses at Alma Terrace and Douglas Row, Brodick - see separate listings - commissioned by the 11th Duke of Hamilton in the mid-19th century, indicating adherence to an established style, if not authorship by the same hand. Originally the Head Factor's house, it was clearly intended to impart status and authority. The individuality of the cast iron fire surrounds in the various rooms demonstrates that a choice of designs was offered when the interiors were being completed. The building would have been one of the general improvements carried out for Lady Mary Douglas-Hamilton, who inherited the estate in 1895 and married the 6th Duke of Montrose in 1906. When ownership of Sylvania passed to the National Trust for Scotland, along with Brodick Castle and various ancillary buildings, in 1958, it became the Head Gardener's House for the Brodick Castle Estate, and remains so (2010).

Brodick Castle Estate, now a discreet entity, was originally the nucleus of the Lands of Arran. Fought over during the Scottish War of Independence, it was transformed into an Earldom and granted to James Hamilton by his cousin, King James IV, in 1503. The Isle of Arran remained as one of the minor estates of the Dukes of Hamilton until the late 19th century. Agricultural improvements in the 18th century, culminating in the clearances of the early 19th century, eventually displaced the small scale and subsistence farming on the island. In the mid-19th, improved transportation made Brodick an attractive picturesque resort and hunting destination for the Hamiltons and the castle was substantially rebuilt with the area around it laid out as gardens and pleasure grounds. On the death of the 12th Duke, in 1895, Brodick passed to the future Duchess of Montrose. In 1957 the Castle and the policies immediately surrounding were conveyed to the National Trust for Scotland.

Listed as part of the National Trust for Scotland Estates Review, 2010-11.

References

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